


you can keep me up (keep me up all night).

by milominderbinder



Series: thirty days of skam fic [8]
Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, College, Eskild Matchmaking, Flirting, Isak Has A Crush, M/M, Movie Nights, Neighbours AU, Noisy neighbours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-11 10:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11146647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milominderbinder/pseuds/milominderbinder
Summary: Isak Valtersen has anemesis, and it's whoever lives above his room at the kollektiv.  Every night, all he can hear is loud, endless mystery noises.  Has his neighbour taken up carpentry?  Trampolining?  Raising cats?  Whatever it is, Isak is both pissed off and sleep deprived, and it's not a good combination.Unfortunately, most of that anger goes away the moment he meets Even Bech Næsheim.  He might be a bit too cute to count as a nemesis.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first au i've written for this series! my prompt for today was 'under' and i just couldn't get the idea of isak living in the flat underneath even out of my head, so here ya go ;) hope you enjoy!

Isak Valtersen has a nemesis.

He didn't ever think he'd be the _sort_ of person to have a nemesis.  For the most part, Isak considers himself very chill. He doesn't really like confrontation and drama bores him; he'd gone through plenty of it in high school, and now that he's twenty, he just wants to keep his head down and have a nice college experience without getting wrapped up in a single bit of nonsense.

Which sounds great in theory.  It would just be nice if his upstairs neighbour had got the memo. 

“It's _every night_ now,” he complains, flopping down to lay his head on the kollektiv’s kitchen table and groaning.  Eskild slides a cup of tea towards him with a tut.

“Are you sure it's all that bad? I'm only two doors down, and _I_ didn't hear anything.”

“Well, you wouldn't,” Isak grumbles, taking a sip of his tea. “Over the sound of what’s-his-name that you brought home last night.”

“Hey!” Eskild reaches across the table and slaps Isak’s arm lightly. “What's-his-name happens to be very important to me.”

Isak snorts. Yeah, it had sure sounded that way when Eskild kicked the guy out at four AM that morning.

“But it is _so_ loud,” he carries on, as Eskild crinkles around opening a pack of biscuits. “And I don't even know what they're _doing_. I mean, sometimes it's just loud music, but it must literally be the room right above mine, cus I hear it _all_. And sometimes there's these noises like -- like they're fucking _trampolining_ or putting up a set of shelves or something. At three in the morning!” 

Eskild tuts again, but this time it sounds more sympathetic.  He offers Isak a biscuit.  

“But it's only started in the last month?” Isak nods, although with his sleep schedule, it feels like centuries.  “Well, nobody new has moved in up there since then. Maybe they just have a noisy guest staying. I'm sure it'll blow over.” 

Isak just sighs, and takes some more of Eskild’s biscuits.

\----- 

He goes to Linn next.

“Have you been hearing any loud noise at night?”

“I wear earplugs,” she says, and goes back to sleep.

\-----

In high school, Isak had _awful_ insomnia.  It stemmed from a mixture of things; a natural predisposition to anxiety battling against his dad abandoning them, his mum not being safe to live with, and his repressed sexuality all at once.  He'd moved into the kollektiv when he was seventeen, but even without his mother ranting and breaking things in the next room, sleep had evaded him most nights.

It's better now, though. Not perfect, but a lot better. He speaks to his dad once a month, and his mum’s in a care facility, so even though she still has a lot of bad days, at least he doesn't have to worry about her hurting herself. And he's out of the closet. Well, mostly out. He's at least eighty percent out, and all the important people are fine with it, so that's a weight off his mind too. All in all, Isak’s been sleeping better for the past year than he ever did for most of his teenage years.

Until this asshole upstairs decided to do _whatever_ they're doing and ruin it all again.

\-----

By the next week, Isak’s _exhausted._ The noise hasn’t let up for a single night, and while he sometimes manages to get to sleep in a reprieve from the weird activities, he’s woken up constantly throughout the night.  He’s considering going and putting a note through the upstairs door, but they’ve never actually met their upstairs neighbours, and he doesn’t know which one has the room above him anyway.  So he’s just remaining silently pissed off, and complaining to Eskild about it every chance he gets.

That Thursday night is particularly loud, and the next day, Isak is actually yawning as he hauls bags of groceries through the door.  It’s mostly instant noodles and Doritos, but he thinks he deserves some credit for actually doing his shopping for once instead of just stealing everyone else’s food.  He’s barely taken two tired steps in the door when he hears the sound of voices, though -- Eskild, unmistakably, and another man’s voice that he doesn’t recognise.  Probably another twenty four hour boyfriend that Eskild’s brought home, and _fuck_ , they’re definitely in the kitchen, and Isak just wants to go unpack his bags of noodles without having to talk to anyone. 

He trudges into the kitchen anyway, sighing through another yawn.  The second he’s in the doorway, Eskild leaps up from the table, making wide eyes at Isak and then at the guy sat across from him.  
  
And -- okay.  Wow.  The guy is mid-laugh, and he looks over at Isak with this huge smile, eyes all crinkled, and he’s sat down but Isak can tell he’s _tall,_ and he has this effortlessly swooshed hair, and all of it just sets something tumbling in Isak’s stomach.  He feels breathless for a second.  It’s rare that he sees someone he’s _this_ attracted to, but whenever he does, all he can think is that he must have been such an idiot to ever not realise he was gay. 

“Hi,” Isak says, voice coming out a little breathless.  He drops his bags onto the counter, and the guy stands up -- he _is_ tall, even taller than Isak, which does nothing to help the fact that Isak’s brain has shut down -- to shake his hand.

“Isak, this is Even,” Eskild introduces. _Even_ .  Such a pretty name.  Isak wants to get lost in it, except Eskild is still making wide eyes at him, and Isak doesn’t know why until the next thing Eskild says is, “He’s our upstairs neighbour!  I can’t believe we’ve never bumped into him before.  You know, it’s funny, but we were just talking about how the layout of our flats is exactly the same.  It seems like Even has the room right above _yours_.”

Oh.

Fuck.

Isak turns his gaze to Even with a sharp snap of his head.  But Even doesn’t look shamed, or contrite, or evil in any way; he’s just smiling obliviously, exactly as he had been a moment before.  Does he not _know?_ The noise is so ridiculously loud, and it only just started a month ago, _surely_ he must have started doing something different and be aware that it’s absolutely awful.  Right?

“I feel bad, I’ve lived here for a year and never even met any of my neighbours!” is all that Even says, though.  He meets Isak’s eyes, and his smile gets wider, and for a second Isak is hopeless to do anything but smile a tiny little bit back.

So this is the guy keeping him awake.  

In that moment, Isak downgrades the noisy neighbour from _nemesis_ to just a regular enemy.  It's not so bad if he's not doing it on purpose, right? Isak would feel bad having a nemesis who didn’t even know he was doing anything wrong.  (The downgrading absolutely, definitely doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he's six-foot-plenty with blue eyes and a smile like the sun.)

\-----

The next Saturday, Eskild bumps into Even once again -- Isak is sure he was lingering in the stairwell for several hours to facilitate that -- and this time, he drags Even into a movie night at the kollektiv.

Even brings popcorn and his smile, so Isak is already two steps closer to liking him.  Or two steps too close to liking him _already_. Even sits closer to Isak than he probably needs to on the sofa, and he keeps telling them about casting choices and directional decisions as they watch the movie, Moulin Rouge, cus apparently it's one of his favourites and he’s the kind of person who knows that stuff about his favourite film.  

He keeps making eye contact with Isak as they share the popcorn, too. Isak very valiantly pretends not to cry at the end, but he's worried Even notices anyway.  

After he's finally gone home, Eskild shoots Isak meaningful looks for ten full seconds, while Isak glares back. Then he throws his hands up and retreats to his room with a huff.

Later, in his mind, Isak reclassifies Even from _enemy_ to _enemy, but without the part where I hate him_.  

\----- 

For a while, Isak thinks maybe he can just keep living like this forever.  It’s not _so_ bad.  There have been a couple of nights where he’s managed to sleep through the noise.  And when Even is doing aerobics or light carpentry or whatever the hell it is that makes so much noise, sometimes Isak can put his earbuds in and drown it out, or go sleep on the living room sofa if Noora isn’t there, or just lie in his bed and think about how pretty Even looks when they see each other in the halls.  It’s an okay life.  
  
Then Isak ends up falling asleep in a lecture.   _Okay,_ he thinks, when his deskmate nudges him awake and Isak realises his notes have stuck to his face with drool.   _I actually do need to get some sleep sometime soon._  

The next day, when Isak is studying at the kitchen table with an industrial sized mug of coffee, there’s a knock at the front door.  Linn’s in bed, and everyone else is out, so Isak groans and drags himself to the entryway -- only to be met with the sight of Even, looking all artfully ruffled in his denim jacket and beaming.

“Isak,” he says, voice all warm.  “I was hoping you’d answer.”  He says it like a conspiracy, and Isak doesn’t dare _hope,_ but he’s also awfully conflicted because he’s tired and it’s Even’s fault and he kind of wants to hate him.  “I couldn’t borrow some eggs, could I?  I got halfway through making pancakes before realising I’ve run out.”

That’s such a neighbourly request that Isak can hardly turn it down.  “Sure,” he says, and traipses back into the kitchen, Even following behind him.  Isak doesn’t actually have any eggs, but he steals some of Eskild’s and hands them to Even, pretending that it’s totally his own generosity.  He wants to be the one to give Even food, damn it.  If Even ever comes knocking at the door for a cup of pot noodle, at least Isak will be ready then. 

He expects Even to leave right after that, considering he literally just said he’s halfway through cooking, but instead Even lingers in the kitchen.  He looks at Isak’s textbooks as if he’s actually interested, and then spots the mega cup of coffee, huffing out a very cute laugh. 

“Tired?” he asks, running his finger along the mug and raising an eyebrow in Isak’s direction.

Isak _is_ tired.  Perhaps a little too tired to be making good social decisions, actually because in that moment, he just thinks _fuck it._

“Yeah, actually.  I haven’t slept well for about a month.”  He tries to sound as jokey as he can, but it probably still comes out a touch too real when he says, “Some asshole in the room above me makes a ton of noise all night long.” 

And all of a sudden, Even’s eyes go wide.

“Oh, _shit_ ! No, you don't hear me, do you?”  Isak nods, sighing as he picks his mug of coffee back up for another long sip.  “I'm so sorry! I -- shit, I pulled the carpet up last month, the noise must be way louder through the floorboards. I didn't even think about that. _Sorry_.”

In the face of Even’s appalled contriteness, Isak doesn't actually know what to say anymore. His anger wavers, and then disappears altogether, leaving behind nothing but an unidentifiable emotion that is all too close to _fond_.

“What are you even doing up that late every night anyway?” he splutters out, mind a bit blank. Isak's had plenty of 3am nights, sure, that’s mostly just chilling in bed not doing anything -- not actively making noise that sometimes goes on til five, or even through the whole night. Even grins sheepishly. 

“I kind of keep artist’s hours, I’m sorry.”  Of _course_ he's an artist. “As soon as I get home I'll put a rug down or something, I swear.  And I’ll use my headphones at night. I really am sorry.”

“Uh, it's okay,” Isak assures him. He's pretty sure his cheeks have gone pink now, but he doesn't know what else to say.

\----- 

That night, there isn't any noise at all. Isak drops off to sleep at two -- okay, even with no disruptions to his sleep schedule he's still a college student with a Netflix account -- and doesn't wake up until the next morning. When he rolls over to check the time in his phone, there's a text waiting for him.

[ 08:52 -- From: Unknown Number ]

_hi! hope it's okay but i bugged eskild for your number. it’s even by the way_

[ 08:52 -- From: Unknown Number ]

_just wanted to say i hope you slept alright ;)_

\---- 

In his head, Isak re-categorises Even once again. This time, he moves from _enemy-without-the-hating-him-part_ to _crush_.


	2. Chapter 2

hi guys! quite a few ppl subscribed to this fic to see the next part, so i just wanted to let you all know i have published it, but i made it a separate work and put it into a series with this fic instead of a multichap. 

sooo you can read the sequel +[here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11295009)!

i'll delete this chapter at some point, but i just didn't want anyone to miss it cus they subscribed to this rather than the series ^_^

**Author's Note:**

> okay ngl i was intending to make these all oneshots but part of me wants to give this a part two now. would any of you guys be interested in reading more of this universe? lemme know! ❤
> 
> this fic is also on my tumblr [here!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com/post/161597720916/thirty-days-of-skam-fic-day-eight-beginning)


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